Tura, April 8: The regional United Democratic Party has suffered a blow in Garo Hills after former legislator and sitting MDC in the Garo Hills autonomous District Council Ashahel D Shira extended support to the NPP and sitting Tura MP Agatha K Sangma.
Ashahel D Shira aka Janggo is the sitting MDC representing Batabari constituency in the GHADC.
He led his supporters from Rajabala region of the plainbelt to a meeting with Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma in Tura this morning to officially endorse Agatha’s candidature and pledge support to the NPP in this crucial parliamentary elections.
Rajabala is one among the 24 assembly constituencies of Garo Hills that make up the Tura Lok Sabha Parliamentary constituency. Being an unreserved assembly constituency, post delimitation, it is also one of the most densely populated areas of Garo Hills having a huge number of electors-35,882 that can prove decisive for any party keen to usurp the prestigious Tura MP seat.
Ashahel D Shira won the Rajabala assembly seat in the 2013 assembly polls as an Independent and went on to support the then Mukul Sangma led Congress government in the state. He was made a parliamentary secretary for water resources.
He lost the 2018 polls to Dr Azad Zaman of the Congress who tragically passed away midterm necessitating a by-election in which the NPP’s Abdus Saleh won defeating Azad’s widow.
The decision of Ashahel D Shira to contest the Rajabala by-election as the UDP candidate proved to be costly for the Congress as the opposition votes split two ways allowing the NPP’s Saleh to romp home victorously.
When Mukul Sangma revolted against the Congress decision to appoint Vincent Pala as the new state party president and walked away with 11 Congress MLAs to the Trinamool camp, a similar crossover occurred inside the GHADC also with 9 out of 11 Congress MDCs joining Mukul Sangma and the trinamool.
Ashahel D Shira remained in the Congress for sometime before moving to the UDP camp, thereby giving the regional party its first sitting MDC in the GHADC after many long years. Shira’s decision to extend support to the NPP will dent the prospects of the opposition camp to some extent, particularly the Trinamool and its leader Mukul Sangma who once shared a close bonhomie with the Rajabala MDC.
